


I’d Ask You To Be Part Of My World, But That Would Be Dumb Since You ARE My World

by DontOffendTheBees



Series: Kurlish Week (AKA Murder Bro Mania) [5]
Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 10:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12274653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontOffendTheBees/pseuds/DontOffendTheBees
Summary: “Oh, come on, how’d you get me that time?” he whined, dropping his remote and throwing his hands in the air. “You weren’t even looking at me!”She shrugged, but she looked brighter than she did before. Maybe all she needed was a bit of familiar grounding violence. “Guess I’m special that way.”Kurlish Week day 5: 'Domestic'





	I’d Ask You To Be Part Of My World, But That Would Be Dumb Since You ARE My World

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry 'bout the angst-fest yesterday!
> 
> Today's fluff was written somewhat hastily, so any mistakes are my own- tbh I'm gonna go do a mass polish of all my Kurlish Week stuff one of these days 'cause I did NOT come prepared!
> 
> There's some blood, references to murder. Just Bart things. It's all very fluffy, though.
> 
> Enjoy! <3

“Hey,” said Ken, patting Bart’s arm insistently. “Hey, pull off down here!”

She frowned, but she did it- obviously she didn’t feel like they had somewhere else to be right this very second. Maybe the universe was giving them the afternoon off. “Why?”

“Oh, man, this is crazy- this is where I live!” he grinned, rolling down the window and leaning out. He glanced guiltily back at Bart, who watched him curiously from the driver’s seat. “Or, uh, where I _lived,_ I guess. Look, look, there’s the park! Man, I loved that park- I mean, I never actually sat in it, it’s where the drug dealers hang out and they’re pretty scary, but I looked at it from my window. And that RV, that broken down one, that’s where those stray cats live, and _that-_ “ he pointed, beaming- “that’s my apartment building! Hey, pull over, I’ll show you around.”

Bart looked at him a moment, face impassive. For a moment he was pretty sure she’d ignore him and just keep driving.

But she shrugged, and shifted gears. “Okay. Whatever.”

He didn’t think he was imagining how unenthusiastic she sounded.

But then again… you could never really tell with Bart.

He frowned, but didn’t speak up.

If something was bothering her, she’d tell him.

 

* * *

 

She didn’t brighten up for the entire tour. Not that there was a lot to tour- calling his apartment a shoebox would be pretty generous. He’d be more tempted to say ring box, or pill box. At least it had a door between the bathroom and the living room (which doubled as a bedroom, a handy feature considered handy by precisely no one, including him), and a narrow breakfast bar between that and the kitchen. He almost couldn’t believe when he first moved in that for the low, low price he was paying (and it was a _low_ price- he liked to live in places that didn’t drain his account and that he could abandon at the drop of a hat if need be) he got almost _two_ entire room dividers. Pretty fancy! Definitely made the place seem swankier than it was if he ever had girls over, which… wasn’t often, admittedly.

Actually, this was the first time he’d had a girl round in about two years, and she didn’t seem all that impressed by his one and a half walls.

“Can we go, now?” she grumbled, kicking his beanbag moodily.

“Uh, well, sure- but don’t you wanna take a shower, maybe have something to eat? Since we’re here? I was just gonna grab some stuff, but…”

She shrugged. She didn’t look super enthusiastic, but she wasn’t edging towards the door anymore, either. “Okay.”

“Great.” Ken mentally calculated how long it had been since he paid his water and gas bills, and figured they’d probably be okay for today. “Shower’s through there- there’s towels in the closet.”

She grunted and moved off towards the bathroom, stripping out of her clothes on the way. Ken quickly and carefully averted his eyes as her shirt came off over her head and landed on his Xbox. Bart didn’t seem to care about being seen naked, but Ken was raised right. He waited ‘til he heard the bathroom door shut behind her to go collect her discarded clothes.

He picked up her shirt, frowning down at it. It was pretty much more blood than shirt at this point. That guy she knifed earlier (with a butter knife, no less- it was slow and messy, and a memory Ken would be scrubbing away for weeks) had been kind of a gusher. He guessed he could throw it in the wash, but he wasn’t sure what good it would do.

But hey, that’s part of why he insisted they stop here- they could grab some of his clothes without having to steal them off the next vaguely intact body she dropped.

He put her bloodied clothes aside in a pile on the coffee table- they could deal with those later- and went over to the beat-up dresser in the corner to dig around for something Bart could wear. Finding stuff was easy enough- at least she was smaller than he was, they could work with too-big clothes.

Pretending he wasn’t looking forward to seeing her dressed in his clothes was a little harder.

 

* * *

 

Half an hour later, a freshly-showered Bart hovered uncertainly in his living room wearing a pair of his old sweatpants and a _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ t-shirt. It was pretty much the comfiest outfit he could find for her (and the most adorable, but he kept that observation to himself), but she still seemed kind of uneasy.

So Ken ordered some take-out, and tried to take her mind off it while they waited.

Turned out she was just as indestructible in Halo 3 as she was in real life.

“Oh, come on, how’d you get me _that_ time?” he whined, dropping his remote and throwing his hands in the air. “You weren’t even _looking_ at me!”

She shrugged, but she looked brighter than she did before. Maybe all she needed was a bit of familiar grounding violence. “Guess I’m special that way.”

He chuckled and slid off the beanbag, reaching for his CD case. “You wanna try another game? I’ve got, uh…. _Injustice,_ and _Marvel vs. Capcom-_ they’re still fighting games, just kinda different.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Her voice, it sounded… kinda distant again. He turned to look at her, concerned. “Bart? You okay?”

“Yeah.”

He looked at her. _Really_ looked at her. “ _Bart…?”_

She huffed, folding her feet up under her and holding them, picking absently at her toenails. “It’s just… weird.”

“What? The videogames? We don’t have to play games, we can watch a movie or-“

“No, I mean,” she grunted, frustrated, and waved vaguely at… something. Everything, he didn’t know. _“This._ All of this. Your own place, all these clothes, it’s… it’s weird.”

He put the case down and shuffled backwards, propping his back against the couch to look up at her. He didn’t say anything- he got the feeling she wasn’t quite done talking yet.

She made a slight snuffling noise, rubbing her nose with the flat of her hand. “I’ve never, like. Had this. A place, that’s mine. I don’t even keep the same car for more ‘n a couple weeks. I don’t got anywhere to go back to. But you do, here. It’s. Yeah, weird.”

Oh. Okay, yeah. He was starting to figure it out now. He reached out, gently prying her hand away from her foot and holding it loosely in his. “Hey,” he said softly, waiting for her to look at him. “You know I’m not- I’m not coming back here, right? Like, after today.”

Her forehead wrinkled up. “Really?”

“Yeah, I mean- I only suggested it ‘cause we were passing by, and my lease hasn’t expired yet and I thought we could clean up and grab some clothes and sleep under a real roof for a night or two. But I’m not saying we should stay here. Hell, we can leave tonight if you don’t like it, but I just thought…” He shrugged, squeezing her hand. “Thought it’d be nice. To stop off, take our foot off the gas.”

_And say goodbye._

He looked around at the apartment. Yeah, he’d got pretty comfortable in this place, but… “Honestly, Bart? I’d rather drive round killing people with you than play Halo 3 any day.”

Bart watched him carefully, searching his face for something.

And then she broke into a broad, toothy grin and tackled him to the floor with the force of her hug.

_“Oof.”_

“Sorry.”

“S’okay,” he laughed, wrapping his arms round her shoulders and squeezing tight.

It really was.

 

* * *

 

Their take-out came ten minutes later, and they ate it on the couch while watching _Star Wars._ Bart didn’t seem to entirely _get_ what was going on, but when the credits rolled she prodded his arm until he put on the next one, so she must have been enjoying it all the same.

They took a breather after _Empire_ to pack up some stuff- Bart dug through Ken’s drawers and closet, throwing anything that she took a liking to at him. He gathered up the carelessly hurled garments with some good-natured grumbling and folded them carefully into bags. At least they had clean clothes for a while, now. Maybe they could even keep it that way if Bart tried to be a little less _enthusiastic_ with the killings.

Even though Bart was clearly wilting by the time they were all packed up, she insisted on watching the next movie. Figuring it was pretty much a given that they were gonna spend the night here at this point, Ken made up the pull-put bed and gathered up every blanket and pillow he could find dotted about, assembling the whole lot into a kind of blanket fort nest where they could doze in front of the TV.

They were about half way through the movie when Bart spoke up again.

“D’you miss it?”

He started. She’d been quiet so long he’d figured she’d gone to sleep already. “What?”

“This. This place. You miss it?”

He thought about it a moment. Sure, it was nice not sleeping in the backseat of a car, and playing videogames and eating take-out in front of the TV. He guessed he missed that a little. But… he didn’t really miss anything that you couldn’t do just about anywhere with a bed and a power connection. “No.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He craned his neck to look at her. She peered up at him, head propped against his shoulder. Ken found her hand again under the blanket they shared, toying gently with her fingers. “I mean…” he smiled, shrugging a little. “This is kinda the best day I’ve ever had in this place.”

She blinked. And then she blushed a little, corners of her mouth lifting. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said, propping his cheek on her head and closing his eyes. “No contest.”

**Author's Note:**

> Want to see this work along with all the other awesome stuff people are contributing? Thinking about contributing yourself? Check out [Kurlish Week on tumblr!](https://kurlishweek.tumblr.com/info)


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